Crews have restored power for thousands of Columbia residents, after a major winter storm caused extensive outages in mid-Missouri. Columbia’s outage map was clear Monday morning, and a press release from the city Sunday said only around 100 people were still without power then.
City crews worked throughout the weekend, with around 9,000 total customers affected by the weather since Friday. Large numbers of outages were caused by felled trees and limbs on power lines.
Columbia Public Schools and Jefferson City Public Schools were closed Monday, as was the University of Missouri.
The City of Columbia tweeted that the American Red Cross again set up an emergency overnight shelter at Broadway Christian Church to assist residents without power and in need of a warm place to spend the night.
Columbia was part of the area hit hardest by the storm, with snow accumulation totaling between 15 and 20 inches. The Columbia Regional Airport recorded 16.22 inches of snowfall during the storm.
It’s the most snow the region has seen in several years. Columbia got 23 inches of accumulation in February of 2011, and more than 45 inches overall that winter.
The area could see another winter storm this weekend as well — our partners at KOMU report another system could move through mid-Missouri Friday.
State-wide, tens of thousands remained without power after the weekend's storm, which lead to the deaths of at least three people. Kansas City Power & Light said more than 45,000 customers still had no power Monday morning.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol says 53-year-old Deann Phillips and 14-year-old Olivia Phillips died Friday when their vehicle lost control on a snow-covered roadway and collided with a tractor-trailer on Missouri 7 in Clinton.
The patrol says 32-year-old Hope Wilson also was killed Friday when she lost control of a car on a snowy stretch of U.S. 24 in Carroll County.
